Archive item of the month: June 2022
Giovanni Bononcini (Modena, 18 July 1670 – Vienna, 9 July, 1747)
Bononcini appeared in London in late 1720 and had two highly successful seasons of operas composed for the opera company the Royal Academy of Music. John Churchill (1650-1722), 1st Duke of Marlborough, had led British forces to great acclaim during the War of the Spanish Succession and had notable victories in the battles at Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet. The Duke had been one of Bononcini’s opera patrons and the composer’s Camilla had been performed in the Duke’s honour in March 1709, a link which appears to have endured. When the Duke died in June 1722 his elaborate stately funeral, which took place in daylight unlike most funerals of significant people of the era, included an extensive ceremonial with a large amount of music. The London Gazette no.6084 (7-11 August, 1722) reported “After the Body was set down in the Chapel, an Anthem was performed with Vocal and Instrumental Music” which was Bononcini’s anthem ‘When Saul was king over us’.
Bononcini had been commissioned by the Dean of Westminster Abbey, Francis Atterbury (1663-1732), to compose the anthem although the choice must surely have lain with Sarah Churchill (1660-1744), Duchess of Marlborough, who paid for the entire funeral, apparently costing in the region of £10,000. Not long after this Atterbury was charged with Jacobitism, arrested and placed in the Tower of London; John Churchill had too been tarnished with Jacobitism several decades before.
The anthem is scored for four-part choir with four-part orchestra and is the earliest funeral anthem with orchestral accompaniment in Britain, all others till then having organ accompaniment only. The anthem is also remarkable in that it was performed in public concerts, for instance at the Academy of Ancient Music, and brought out in this second edition in 1738 not long after Queen Caroline’s funeral. It was advertised in the London Daily Post, & General Advertiser of 17 February 1739. Bononcini’s success with the opera scene in London was short-lived and, following a break in France in 1724, he received an offer of £500 a year for life from Henrietta Godolphin (1681-1733), 2nd Duchess of Marlborough, for whom he directed performances of his own music at her private concerts until 1731 and thus continued his association with the Marlborough family.
The volume contains the bookplate of Charles Kensington Salaman (1814-1901, Member A394) who listed the contents on the front free end-paper and dated it in 1850 and on Oct. 19th 1893. It was donated by Salaman, a pianist, composer, scholar and lecturer.
